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COURSE CARE

Common Cents: Say Yes to TAS!
February 27, 2015

Common Cents: Say Yes to TAS!

By Larry Gilhuly, Director, Northwest
Region
December 1, 2008

For the past several weeks, every Turf Advisory Service
(TAS) visit made in Washington, Oregon, and especially Hawaii
has focused on one major subject - methods to deal with the
current economic downturn and the inevitable reduction in labor
occurring at virtually every golf course. With current staff
reductions ranging from 10-30% with even more possible as 2009
approaches, golf courses are scrambling to come up with ways to
continue creating good playing conditions without compromising
long term agronomic health on golf course areas
down-the-middle. While budgets are getting slashed at all
levels of golf courses, the purpose of this update is to
encourage you all to measure your cuts twice before actually
eliminating some important portions of the annual budget.

One of the cuts that would seem easy to make would be the
USGA Green Section Turf Advisory Service. Why would a golf
course pay from $1800-$2900 (based on payment by May 15, 2009)
to have a USGA agronomist visit when budgets are so tight? What
possible ideas could be derived from a visit by a USGA
agronomist that would be any different than any other
consultant? Finally, is there any guarantee that the USGA
agronomist recommendations will actually pay for the cost of
the visit? Hopefully, the following will answer some of these
questions:

1.
Why would a golf course pay to have a USGA agronomist visit
when budgets are so tight?
The better question would be, 'How could you
not
have an unbiased individual that sees more golf courses in your
region come in to assist in addressing ways to deal with less
labor and other budgetary issues?' Let's face it - not one
single golf course superintendent has the market cornered on
every good idea to deal with less labor while still providing
the type of quality expected by players. Numerous programs are
being conducted at every level of golf course ranging from
multi-tasking jobs on and around greens, dramatically changing
how bunkers are addressed, recycling sand on greens, tees and
approaches, turning back the clock with far less expensive
fertilizer programs, and addressing equipment with a cash flow
model instead of outright purchasing that your players need to
understand during these difficult times. When times are tight,
it pays to have outside assistance. In the case of the USGA
Green Section agronomists it will more than pay for the cost of
the visit!

2.
What possible ideas could be derived that would be any
different than any other consultant?
Most of the examples in the previous paragraph point out the
difference between USGA agronomists and others that golf
courses utilize for advice. The only thing USGA agronomists are
selling is advice and ideas! If the answer for a particular
problem is not immediately known, there are 17 other
agronomists who will have the answer or direction to take to
find solutions. Various golf magazines have their 'Best
18' lists - you can utilize the 'Best 18'
agronomists on your site despite having only one person doing
the actual visit.

3.
Is there any guarantee that the USGA agronomist
recommendations will actually pay for the cost of the
visit?
The answer to this question also is very simple - it is
entirely up to you! Every USGA agronomist can easily provide
one or more recommendations that will more than pay for the
cost of their visit should you follow the recommendations. This
is especially topical in the economic downturn we are currently
experiencing across the country.

So when the time comes early next year to make that decision
to keep using a completely unbiased resource for information or
'save' the cost of the TAS fee, measure twice before
you cut. It will be the best common cents decision you will
make during the next year.